The present invention relates to irrigation and particularly to perforated tubing for drip irrigation and the like.
Due to shortages of water in many parts of the world today, drip irrigation is becoming quite popular. Drip and sprinkler type irrigation is a process wherein water is distributed in controlled amounts to specific plants or areas of plants. This process conserves a considerable amount of water as compared to the flood technique of irrigation.
Some sprinkler and drip irrigation techniques utilize a perforated hose or tubing of a fairly thin wall construction having flexible generally flat configuration such that the tubing can be laid on the ground in a manner such that the perforations or openings in the tubing are vertically oriented.
Such flat tubing normally assumes its flat configuration during the manufacturing process or just after the manufacturing process when it is wound on large drums for storage or transportation. During the manufacturing process, the holes are formed in preferably what would be the upper surface or upper wall of the tubing. When the perforations or openings are formed by a process such as a laser wherein the material is melted during formation of the hole, many of the holes sometimes become closed again due to the engagement of the opposed wall during the winding of the tubing on drums or the like for storage. This is one of the major drawbacks to this technique of manufacturing such tubing.
It is therefore desirable that some means be available for preventing the reclosing and/or partial reclosing of the holes of tubing during the manufacturing process.